It is as Bob Cringely admits early in his post, a very negative column about IBM.

A month ago I began hearing about impending layoffs at IBM, but what could I say beyond “layoffs are coming?” This time my first clues came not from American IBMers but from those working for Big Blue abroad. Big layoffs were coming, they feared, following an earnings shortfall that caused panic in Armonk with the prospect that IBM might after all miss its long-stated earnings target for 2015. Well the layoffs began hitting a couple weeks ago just before I went into an involuntary technical shutdown trying to move this rag from one host to another. So I, who like to be the first to break these stories, have to in this case write the second day lede: what does it all mean?

It means the IBM that many of us knew in the past is gone and the IBM of today has management that is, frankly, insane.

And what of the reference in the comments to the City of Austin? It seems that “Smarter Planet” sometimes isn’t as smart as the advertisements lead you to believe. See the link below for an article from a reporter in Austin.

Regardless, from the comments and some back channel conversations I’ve seen, the article is spot on.